Internationally it was released December 18, 2009, in Australia and Germany, December 21 in France, December 23 in Japan, and on February 2, 2010, in Korea with further international releases (in some cases re-releases) in March, April and May 2010. With this album, Blige achieved a record of nine albums to have debuted at the top of the US R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Background

Blige started working on her ninth album while she toured with Robin Thicke in 2008. In an interview with Rap-Up magazine she said:

The album was initially titled Stronger after the song, "Stronger" which Blige recorded and released as the lead single from the soundtrack Music Inspired by More Than a Game from the LeBron James' documentary More Than a Game. However Rap-Up later revealed that the album had been re-titled Stronger with Each Tear.

Hitomi

Hitomi Furuya(古谷 仁美,Furuya Hitomi, born January 26, 1976), known mononymously as hitomi, is a Japanese singer-songwriter. She began her career as model, but after meeting Tetsuya Komuro he began managing her career as a pop singer. In 1998 she left the "Komuro Family" and started working with other musicians and producers, oriented to other musical genres such as pop rock, and more recently to electropop.

Biography

Early life

Born Hitomi Furuya(古谷 仁美,Furuya Hitomi) in Tochigi, Japan, Hitomi's family relocated to Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture when she was a child. Consequently, Hitomi always identified herself as a girl from Kanagawa. hitomi was an enthusiastic athlete throughout her childhood, playing baseball, soccer, and basketball, as well as an avid reader of manga. When hitomi was 16 years old, she was spotted and approached by a scout from a modelling agency. Hitomi signed a short modelling contract and began appearing in magazines while she was still in high school.

In 1993, then 17 years old, Furuya was spotted by eminent Avex music producer Tetsuya Komuro at an audition. Komuro signed Furuya to Avex, put Furuya through vocal training, and decided that she should use an all-lowercase 'hitomi' as her stage name. The following year, in November 1994, hitomi released her debut single, "Let's Play Winter", through Avex Trax, to which she wrote the lyrics. Since then, Hitomi has been the lyricist for almost all of her songs.

I am (biblical term)

The Koine Greek term Ego eimi (Greek Ἐγώ εἰμί, pronounced[eɣó imí]), literally I am or It is I, is an emphatic form of the copulative verb εἰμι that is recorded in the Gospels to have been spoken by Jesus on several occasions to refer to himself, in the Gospel of John occurring seven times with specific titles.
These usages have been the subject of significant Christological analysis.

I Am Music

Can you speak your words of bedtimeI was just saying to myself the other dayMost of believing the magicianBut you're bewitchingBecause of this I must sayI (I)I (oh I)Appreciate what you give to meYeah (I)I (oh I)Appreciate what you give to mePeople say I got soul look at all the records I holdThe lives I've affected, connect and controlWith me in your basement, your mama got blownI provide the vibe to keep the strippers on polesThrough me the black experience is glorious toldFrom a school that's old bold, so I rock goldAnd platinum, so cats I hold notes and cash for themOn streets I rap for them, in ghettos I blast for themMash with them, at the party and allPeep the universal language that's embodying allPut the Billie Holiday, Bob Marley in y'allY'all feel most high when I be in y'allSystem, with the rhythm I up jump the boogieShame I rely on record labels to push meSince the bush, I been y'all way to escapeThrough eight-tracks wax CDs and tapesI am musicYou can feel me all over alive, I help culture survive, I opened the eyes of manyStyles y'all wrote in the skies, with your lows and highs, open your mind to hear meIn the streets I beat cops and obsoleteOn every station it's hot you can't stop my heatI taught J and Dre how to rock the beatOn what's going on today yo, I gots to speakI take the stand, yo you could feel me bamWhether in Larry Graham or Steely DanLive I be killing it manFor how long I survived yo I'm realer than manGot a soft side but I'm still a manFor me women cry and children dance, I'm trying to eatI could'a got a mil and ranBut like Sly for the fam still I standI am musicI been here since the beginningBeginning of time yo beginning of timeDeep in the mind of the ancient onesEverybody love me like they do the sunI shine at times yo at times I'm darkYou can't categorize me, my mind's a artInside my heart, it ain't about climbing chartsI'm the one you roll with when your ride is smartThe change that came, the change that comesI change with chords and I kick it with drumsGet blow with horns and did it on the oneRiffed for guitars, for the Lord I sungSpun around the world at parties and weddingsWherever I go I create the settingYou know me from lessons or your pops collectionsWhether whole or half stepping I'm a blessing